Trip Report: 5 relaxing days in Tokyo

AKA one of the most spontaneous and foolish things I have ever done?

**Context**
We have both been to Japan before, and you can find the itinerary of my last trip in my profile.
We had a bunch of airline and hotel credits that we wanted to use before they expired (late June), and because of work and other commitments we could only travel for 6 days. That meant we only really had five days in Japan coming all the way from Europe. Yes, it was a crazy idea. Yes, I’d still recommend it! We booked the trip a matter of days before it happened as there was some last-minute availability for flights.

The trip wasn’t for any particular purpose other than to relax, enjoy food and shopping. I thought it would be useful to share this trip report for people who have already spent some time in Tokyo or people who want to see some things outside of the immediate tourist trail. I’ve left out some of the info that I wrote in my last trip report, but when I don’t spell out where we went for food it’s likely we went to one of the places I mentioned last time.

**Day One**
Flew via LHR to HND with British Airways. Flight was good, with decent food and drink, and we managed to sleep a little bit. Unfortunately I was next to the galley which was really quite noisy so for the return I changed my seat to be further away, and ended up sleeping much better.
*Tip: Try to get a seat further away from the galley on such a long flight. It should be quiet.*
After the last trip, I was worried immigration would take forever, but we were more or less the first people off the plane and there was no line whatsoever. All we had to do was wait for bags. What I really enjoyed was seeing the customs detection dogs being trained on our belt. That made the wait for luggage (about 15/20 minutes) much more fun!
We decided to get a taxi since it was already quite warm outside and we had a lot of luggage. They’re easy to find and there was no wait.
We got to our hotel (*Conrad Tokyo*) in time for our early check in. For whatever reason, the check in process at Japanese hotels tends to take a long time. There was an issue with our room so it took over an hour before we actually got to go inside. We were only staying there one night because this was a hotel credit which was about to expire, and we wanted to maximise it. We went for a swim in the pool near the top floor that overlooks the city. Since we had dining credits we had a light dinner and cocktails in the hotel looking out over Tokyo Bay as the sun set, then did some light exploring in the area. Unfortunately for the second time I missed the **Miyazaki clock** performance!

*Tip: The bar in the Conrad is pretty quiet, as it’s more famous for afternoon tea. If you’d like a quiet drink in a nice setting I’d recommend it if you were in the area.*
**Day Two**
Jetlag was surprisingly fine, and we were awake at a normal time, around 8:30am. We had breakfast in the hotel which was an enormous buffet of Japanese and Western options. I believe you can book breakfast even if you’re not staying in the hotel. Afterwards we headed to **Kyu-Shiba-rikyu** gardens which were really pretty. You can buy a joint ticket for this and Hamarikyu, but since we’d already been there fairly recently we only bought single tickets. There were so many turtles! The trees had so many peaches in them too.

From there we headed to **Zojoji Temple** on the way to Tokyo Tower. It’s a great contrast to see something so large and modern hovering over a huge temple complex.

We booked a tour of the top deck of **Tokyo Tower**. It’s a slight misnomer since it’s an audioguide for most of it rather than a tour, but I would say it was worth it because of the small numbers of people. You can take a lot of good pictures from the top deck.

*Tip: If you’re not keen on small spaces or heights then I would skip the top deck, as it requires taking a small elevator and also leads to quite a confined space.*

We headed back to the hotel to relax a little while before leaving for our next hotel. After checking into the net hotel in Ginza, just down the street, we went for a quick sushi dinner and some shopping in Ginza. It was a fairly early night in the hotel with snacks and drinks from the conbini.

**Day Three**
Our hotel offered breakfast every day (until 2pm actually), and although there was just a single item available each day, they catered for dietary requirements well. Every breakfast was very good.

We headed to **Toranomon Hills**, where we had lunch plans. Next door to the lunch venue was the **NHK Museum**, which was a fun place to spend an hour or so. I’m a bit of a hobbyist for broadcasting so it appealed to me a lot though I know that that’s pretty niche. There isn’t a ton of English-language explanation, and it was very hot inside, though it is free! The highlight is a TV studio where you can do a weather forecast and read a teleprompter (in Japanese so not possible for me but it was fun to see how it all worked). There wasn’t much of a gift shop which is sadly a recurring theme with niche museums in Japan. If they had some old posters or postcards like the ones on display in the museum I definitely would have got some.

We had booked a lunch at the 2-Michelin Star vegetarian restaurant **Daigo** before we came. Again, we had a dining credit as a result of Amex Platinum (booked via Pocket Concierge, in English) and this made the lunch effectively free, other than the drinks (that did end up costing almost as much as the meal… oops!). It was a lovely unique experience, with staff that spoke very good English to be able to explain each of the eight courses. Highlights included a warm asparagus seaweed and noodle roll, homemade marinaded tofu and, unlike my first trip, a delicious cold udon. The only thing I wasn’t hugely keen on was a mushroom porridge, but with a private dining room overlooking a zen garden, I can’t complain.

For the afternoon we went to Asakusa which is one of my favourite places to walk around. In the evening we had dinner at **La Casa** which is a tiny Italian we’d been to before.
**Day Four**
We decided to explore the area south of Ginza, and found a lovely statue of a lesser-known dog, **Chirori**, who was Japan’s first therapy dog. We visited **Tsukiji Market** which was full of interesting sights and smells, but incredibly busy. We had thought we’d be jetlagged enough to go there very early at some point but fortunately/unfortunately this wasn’t an issue. It does feel slightly like a tourist trap so I don’t feel like I missed out on not spending more time there.

We visited the **Sumida Hokusai Museum** which was interesting not only for its exhibits but its architecture. We wandered around the residential area surrounding the museum which is always a highlight of any trip to Japan. I’d encourage people who visit to allow some time for simply getting lost and wandering around. It’s one of my favourite parts of travel.

We had some Pokémon gifts we wanted to buy for family so we headed to **Sunshine City** as we knew there was also a huge gachapon hall, in fact the biggest, there. Even though I’m not particularly a fan of Pokémon or anime in general, it was still fun to see the crazy assortment of products you could buy. The quality was high and generally very cute! The gifts were a hit. The **gachapon halls** were also a highlight. My favourite purchase was a “cat apology press conference” figurine.

I’m also a big fan of Japanese leatherwear so I stopped by 666 Harajuku where I picked up an off the rack made-in-Japan leather jacket at a great price (around 120k). They also do custom pieces.
**Day Five**
We had a fairly lazy morning. Near our hotel was the **Nissan Experience**. It’s definitely worth stopping by. They have a cafe where they print a picture onto a latte (coffee or matcha) for you. Of course they have rotating displays about cars and concept technologies.

We had a craving for Kura Sushi so using ePark, I joined the virtual line at their flagship. This was a good call because we ended up having to wait around 10 minutes instead of at least 45 minutes for people who show up without having joined the virtual line.

*Tip: ePark is available in Japanese only but it works OK with machine translation. It’s slightly clunky but I managed to figure out joining the virtual line.*

One thing I had never tried in Japan was the claw machines. I had a slight amount of beginners’ luck and won some Galbos without spending too much. That said, now that I’ve tried the claw machines I don’t have a desire to do it again. At 100 yen per attempt, they feel like an enormous rip-off. And for the ones where you have to slowly move the item along a belt, it’s not even that fun. I know you can ask for help, but it feels like a frustrating process rather than an enriching one.

It was a humid day but in the evening it was glorious to walk around as the sky was beautiful. We had planned to get some Okonomiyaki but once we arrived at the restaurant in Asakusa there was a sign outside saying “NO AC, IT IS VERY HOT INSIDE”. If it was bad enough to give a warning, I’m sure it would have been much too hot for me. Of course it makes sense that a building with lots of hot skillets would be hot, so it was a little foolish to try in summer! Instead we went to the **Onigiri Asakusa Yadoroku** for a light and cheap meal. It has a Bib Gourmand from Michelin, and it’s easy to see why. Dessert was a taiyaki from the covered market.

Afterwards we headed to the **Choya Ginza Bar**, where you can do a tasting of umeshu (plum wine). They also have different cocktails where the usual spirits are replaced by umeshu. It’s a surprisingly fancy place, and much smaller than it looked online. That said, service was good. They close fairly early so we went back to our hotel where the lounge bar overlooked the busy streets.
**Day Six**
A relaxed morning again before our flight home. We got a taxi to Haneda then waited in the looooong line for security before spending some time in the amazing JAL First lounge. We had sushi and bento with delicious melon custard breads. Without exaggeration it’s one of my favourite places in Japan!

The flight home was reasonably uneventful though slightly delayed so we missed our connecting flight and were rebooked on the next one an hour later. Jet lag was fortunately OK this way too.

**Summary**
Travelling for almost a full day each way for less than a week of tourism is not something I would have ever done, but it was a spur of the moment thing and I don’t regret it at all. We got to go back to some restaurants we fell in love with, and since we live rurally Tokyo is an amazing way to scratch the city itch. The next trip to Japan will cover more ground but Tokyo is quickly becoming my favourite city.